10 Most Common Attractive Nuisances

A working farm, like a construction site, can be a source of endless wonder and interest for a small child. Haylofts, grain bins, silos, tractors, and even abandoned trucks and cars are among the intriguing hazards that children might be tempted to explore.

In many farm cases, courts have weighed the burden to the farmer of removing the hazard against the potential risk to a child, finding, for example, that while it is probably reasonable to expect farmers to install and maintain an adequate fence, farmers should not generally be required to move farm equipment at the end of each day from its place of use to a locked barn or other secure location.

More than one family of an injured child has attempted to apply the attractive nuisance doctrine to horses or other livestock encountered on a farm, but courts have largely refused to classify a living thing (or the barbed wire fence keeping it in) as an attractive nuisance.